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Shock and Sadness After Journalists Killed on Air; Poll: Trump Widens Lead, Biden Tops Clinton vs. GOP. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 27, 2015 - 06:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We come to you this morning with very heavy hearts. Two of our own were shot and killed during a live shot yesterday morning.

[05:58:07] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She lived a great life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had that "it" factor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lost the love of my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not only was he robbed of his life, this world was robbed.

JEFF MARKS, WDBJ MANAGER: I have been in this business a long time. It's the worst day of my career.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The picture of rage and instability emerging.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was someone who was known to people at the station for volatility.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That guy who did this is not the guy that I worked with.

ANDY PARKER, ALISON'S FATHER: We've got to do something about crazy people getting guns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to NEW DAY. It is Thursday, August 27, 6 a.m. in the East. Alisyn is in New York. I'm live in Roanoke, Virginia, outside CNN affiliate WDBJ.

It was at this hour yesterday two lives were stolen by a mad man, executed on live TV. There's a growing memorial behind us, and there is a growing sense of loss all around us. The station's morning show that Alison Parker and Adam Ward worked on is on air right now, paying tribute to their colleagues. Their families, friends sharing their grief, but also celebrating the lives that were taken far too soon.

We're going to speak in a few minutes with the boyfriend of Alison Parker. And we're dealing with the question of why did this happen. It's question that's too familiar these days. Answers often casting a shadow more than shedding light on senseless murder.

This time there's plenty to go on, from a social media post footprint and a rambling letter that the mad man faxed to a television network about his motives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): As the sun rises in Roanoke, two faces that said good morning to Virginians are gone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alison Parker and Adam Ward were part of our family here at the station, and many of you have told us that they were part of your morning each day, as well.

CUOMO: Twenty-four-year-old reporter Alison Parker and 27-year- old cameraman Adam Ward, executed by a former employee who was fired from their news station two years ago.

Vester Flanagan, known by his TV name Bryce Williams, killed the journalists while they were live on air, recording video of himself carrying out the executions. While on the run, posting those videos online, going on a Twitter rant, saying, quote, "Alison made racist comments, and Adam went to H.R. on me after working with me one time."

By the afternoon the murderer had shot and killed himself. But before confirmation of his death, WDBJ's general manager sharing his anguish on air.

MARKS: I'm going to step out of my role as a former journalist and say, I'm not really sure whether I want him to live or die. If he dies, then he took the coward's way out.

CUOMO: The shooter would fax rambling suicide notes, 23 pages long, to ABC News. He complained that years of bullying at former workplaces, including WDBJ, drove him to violence.

He also wrote, quote, "What sent me over the top was the Charleston church shooting. And my hollow-point bullets have the victims' initials on them."

A picture of the murderer's anger emerging in the video captured just last month, showing him in a bout of road rage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you're still a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Are you finished?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been finished. You followed me here.

CUOMO: What's going through your mind when you get in the parking lot and you see him get out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, just a lot of things. I parked in a way that I wouldn't get blocked in and then I got out of my vehicle quickly so I wouldn't be in a cage with somebody that's aggressively following me. And I was pretty much making a beeline to the store to population, really, sort of have some other people around because he was obviously, you know, not in the right mind.

CUOMO: In an interview with FOX News, Alison's father says this is a problem he's now dedicating his life to solving.

PARKER: We've got to do something about crazy people getting guns. This is something that is Alison's legacy that I want to make happen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: We have a duty to report but not necessarily repeat, and when it comes to the man who did all of this, his name should be forgotten as quickly as possible as we do all we can to remember the lives that were stolen.

And on that note, let's bring in Chris Hurst. He is an anchor at WDBJ here in Roanoke, and he'd been dating Alison Parker for nearly nine months. He shared a very personal and poignant tribute to her online. He wrote in part, quote, "She was the most radiant woman I ever met. And for some reason, she loved me back."

I'm sorry to have you on for this, my friend. I appreciate you doing it, and I know last night had to be very tough. How are you doing? How is the family?

CHRIS HURST, BOYFRIEND OF ALISON PARKER: Her family remains strong. I am trying to find the strength that she always said that I had inside of me. It doesn't feel like I have it right now. But she told me all the time that she loved me to the ends of the earth and that she felt safe with me. And I just -- I am so saddened that there was nothing, Chris, that could have been done to keep her safe yesterday. I truly believe that.

CUOMO: What are you taking solace in right now? You know you had a special love in your life. You know you had time with her. I know you're clutching what now is a part of your heart, the memories you have.

HURST: I know. And it's -- it's something that was supposed to be for us, but now that she was taken from this world, I think it's for everyone, some of the pictures that we had together. We made it for our six-month anniversary. She made it for me and wrote love notes to me, saying that for the next six months it was my turn to fill in all of the pictures in here. And it's just -- it's a love story that I think is something that I was privileged and honored to have had for only nine months. It was not a long relationship, but we were betrothed. We wanted to get married.

She was celebrating her birthday with me and a special friend and her parents on the Nantahala River in North Carolina, her favorite place on earth. And there is a place on the river where we were whitewater rafting where she said, that's where she wanted to get married to me.

CUOMO: Right there. HURST: Right there. And we -- we moved in together at the

beginning of August with the desire to save money to buy a house and to buy a ring.

CUOMO: You have to deal with the fact that you can't remember her the way she was taken. I know it happened on TV. I know the images are out there.

HURST: Well, and I haven't -- and I haven't -- until I was here today had not seen any images from -- from his video and had not seen actual video of our air check of what happened.

And I can understand fully that he has tried to create a narrative that is one that I hope everybody quickly, quickly forgets. Because the manner in which he took Alison and Adam's life should not be the focus of this story. The focus of this story should be two amazing lives that were extinguished yesterday for no good reason.

[06:05:09] And I now join so many thousands of other Americans who cannot explain why their loved ones were taken from them. And when you ask me how I'm doing, I can't explain why either. I have no idea how I'm doing.

CUOMO: You just have to live your life, let your moments come right now and take some solace in -- you saw what happened yesterday. You how people came out. And Alison was 24 years young, but she touched so many people.

HURST: And she was a hometown girl. She grew up about 45 minutes away from Roanoke, in Martinsville in Henry County, and she was the princess of that area. She was the golden girl. She was the golden child. And that community is breaking right now for her. Her family is surrounded by support.

This area is no stranger to tragedy. This station is no stranger to tragedy. Many of the people who were working yesterday were working on April 16, 2007, when another atrocity occurred due to gun violence in Virginia Tech. And...

CUOMO: Let me ask you...

HURT: ... we will -- we will repair. We will regain our strength, and we will be able to move forward.

CUOMO: Let me ask you something, Chris. We were looking through the book. There's a note in there about her saying, "We're making moments. Let's make more moments together."

HURST: Yes.

CUOMO: You know she loved you so much. How do you tell yourself that you got so lucky? How did you do it?

HURST: I don't know. I mean, it really is -- our love story, I think, is just like Adam and Melissa's. And real quick, Adam was the best boyfriend and fiance I could ever imagine, way better than me. His spontaneity to show his love, going the extra mile to prove his love to Melissa was something that I have never seen before. And the way he proposed to her was elaborate and well-executed, and they were going to be a wonderful married couple.

CUOMO: What did he do?

HURST: He just -- he set it up so that she was exactly where they wanted to be, got down on one knee and -- and just always made Melissa feel special. And those were two people, just like myself, who maybe never thought that they would get that kind of love, and we got it.

And for me, you know, it was at the station Christmas party last year. The way she looked. I mean, Chris, you've seen her on television.

CUOMO: Beautiful.

HURST: Stunning.

CUOMO: And the energy that came out of her also.

HURST: And that, too, inside and out. And so I saw her at the Christmas party wearing this gold sequin dress. And everyone always said she kind of looked a little bit like Taylor Swift, and she had this beautiful red lipstick on. And I -- I just stood in the corner. I said, "Chris, you've got to do something or you're a fool." And something came over me. And I went up and made my move and asked her out a couple of days later, and we had our first date on January 1.

CUOMO: And you say you felt tremendously lucky.

HURST: Yes.

CUOMO: You couldn't believe that she returned the affection.

HURST: Yes, yes. I'm not one to -- I'm not one to really put myself out there for dating. And, you know, it's a tough job that we have. And we don't get a lot of free time. People in the business tend to know each other and tend to get each other. And we got each other.

And -- but something came over me, and I decided that I had to go for it. And we were both so lucky that that occurred, because she told me and her parents told me last night that I was the love of her life. And she's the love of my life.

CUOMO: Does it help you to know that you had something that many people long for and never have in their lives?

HURST: It does. That's the only thing that's keeping me going. It is surreal to talk to you here, because this is an environment that I am familiar with, having satellite trucks here and having this chaos of media descend upon us. This is something that I've been in the trenches for as a journalist, and Alison has had exposure to it, as well. And Adam, too. And so this seems surreal, and it seems eerie. And I think that

that's giving me some sort of strength to be able to carry on and share her story as much as I can.

But also, the love. You're right, the love that we had was so rare. And I want everyone out there to know that it is possible to get that love. Even if it only lasts for nine months. And that has given me some strength to carry on today.

I was thinking last night as I was struggling to fall asleep for only a few hours that I am dismayed that we -- we were coming up to going to more weddings, more events. She was just about to go -- she was a brilliant dancer. She was a brilliant dancer. And we have a charity dancing competition here that she was going to be a part of. And she was going to do the tango, because her instructor said, "Alison, you're so sexy. You need to do the tango with me." And she loved it.

But I couldn't see it until the night of the performance, and that's supposed to be later on this fall. And he will do it by himself in her honor. So I won't get to see that.

[06:10:10] And I thought last night, we didn't even get a Thanksgiving or a Christmas together.

CUOMO: When you think about what you want people to know, the Alison that you know, it's easy for us to look at her on video, and you see all the obvious things that you want to see in a broadcaster and someone who brings a passion to their work. And she was 24 years old. She just turned 24 years old. You celebrated together. What was inside Alison that we don't get to see on television that you knew?

HURST: She was fierce.

CUOMO: Fierce.

HURST: She was tenacious.

CUOMO: You told me that it was only a matter of time before she was eating my lunch at this level.

HURST: I know, I know. She would have run circles around every of these national news outlets who are now here to cover this tragedy.

CUOMO: What made her special?

HURST: She had unflinching confidence in what she wanted to do. Maybe not always in herself, but what she wanted to do in her goals. She knew what her goals were. And that was to be in television news, to do journalism, to be a visual story teller, and to eventually become an anchor. And she was anchoring a lot. And I'm sure that that was going to be a promotion for her in the very near future.

And then she wanted to eventually become a news director. She thought that was the path to becoming a news director, Chris. How many 24-year-olds do you know in the business who say, "That's my career goal"? Not to be on TV, not to get all of the accolades and attention. She wanted to be a news director. She was a journalist.

CUOMO: The goals for a lot of us are usually a lot more shallow things.

HURST: Yes, yes.

CUOMO: Is that part of the reason that the love was so fast and so deep?

HURST: One of many. One of many reasons. I saw her, and I told my mother when I met her and we first started dating that, "Mom, I have finally found my teammate and my partner." And we were going to be a great TV news couple.

CUOMO: People say that about both of you, by the way. They say that the personalities were a perfect mesh. That the energy that you have, that the way you are with people, that you were a perfect set for each other.

HURST: I think we were. I think that it proves that you can find a perfect match out there. Even when I never thought that that would happen. The inscription she wrote at the top says, "The cutest, newsiest prettiest couple ever."

CUOMO: You are a pretty couple.

HURST: And damn it, Chris, I think that we were. And I think that we will remain that, forever. Forever.

CUOMO: I love this. "Over the years, I hope we keep our five- year-old sense..."

HURST: Read it out loud, yes, the whole thing.

CUOMO: "Over the years I hope we keep our 5-year-old sense of humor. And yes..."

HURST: Go ahead and say it. No, don't say it.

CUOMO: It was...

HURST: This is personal. This was personal for us.

CUOMO: This one is better. "This is our story. Let's be sure to capture more wonderful moments and have this book grow."

HURST: Right. So this book was personal for us. This was meant to be shared on our six-month anniversary. She gave this to me as a gift. OK.

CUOMO: It took a lot of time and a lot of love.

HURST: For my birthday she took me to "Midsummer Night's Dream" in -- outside Harrisonburg in Sand, Virginia and wrote me an invitation and gave it to me on my birthday that she did in Old English, perfect Old English. I mean, she was amazing. There was nobody else that I've ever met or even heard about who was as special and as remarkable as her.

And these things were private for us. These things were for us, but now that she's been taken from me and taken from her family, I need the entire world to know that a woman as amazing as her exists and was taken too soon. And our love is forever.

CUOMO: One thing I want you to know: you speak so beautifully. You're a pro, but this is about more than your ability as a broadcaster. When you say she was taken, remember that on the most important level, that is not true. Because you had the time. You have the memories. You have the intimacy. You have the connection as is remembered in these pictures that can't be taken. And I hope you hold it close.

HURST: Real quick, I -- I thank you for that. And I am a broadcaster. And this is -- people say, how can you do this so quickly after it happened? And I'm a communicator. It's the only thing I know how to do. She had so many wonderful things she was excellent at.

CUOMO: That's what she wanted you to do.

HURST: Yes, it's what she wanted me to do. She went to Governor's School for calculus, and she was a champion swimmer, a gymnast, a kayaker, a dancer and a broadcaster, and a friend and a lover. And -- and it's the only thing I know how to do. And yes, I will carry these pictures with me. As a broadcaster, I don't like to share pictures on Facebook. I'm a very private personal generally. I don't like to do it. But she drew this out of me. And I have dozens and dozens of photographs with her in the nine months we spent together. And that was because of her.

And now that she's gone I'm so thankful that she was who she was and is who is so that I will have these pictures forever. These memories are going to be everlasting, and that's what's -- that's what's keeping us and her family together right now.

CUOMO: And as you said, we often struggle with what tense to talk about people and say Alison is in the present tense, because she'll always be with you.

[06:15:08] HURST: I mean, she's right here with me right now. She's in the present tense. And a memory as amazing as hers -- and Adam's in the present tense, too. I mean, we love Adam.

CUOMO: They were a team.

HURST: And we love Alison. They worked together nearly every single day. And this is unconscionable, Chris. It's happened to two of us. It's happened to two of us.

CUOMO: It happens too often to too many. And you're dealing with it as a news family, personally and with her family. And the same questions always come up, and the search is always for those answers, always hard in the moment. But thank you for sharing your love.

HURST: Thank you.

CUOMO: And for allowing us to know what made Alison so special. Much more than just how she lost her life.

HURST: We are -- her family is interested in making changes to prevent these types of things from happening ever again.

They also, along with I, are very much interested in promoting two scholarships that have already been created in her name. Patrick Henry Community College down in Henry, where she got college credit at governor's school and high school. So she already was working on an associate's degree when she was still in high school. And so they have created a memorial scholarship fund in her name.

And at James Madison University where she loved to go to college. She was in Alpha Phi. Her sorority sisters, their hearts are broken right now. They immediately created a scholarship fund, the Alison Bailey Parker Scholarship Fund for students who are in the school of media arts and design. And she was so proud to be a SMAD grad. She was so proud. And now she will have a legacy. We will carry on her legacy, and she will be remembered far and wide.

CUOMO: Chris Hurst, thank you so much.

HURST: Thank you, sir.

CUOMO: I appreciate it. I know this isn't a conversation that's easy to have, but thanks for helping everybody understand.

HURST: It's easy to have when you love someone and just love talking about them. I love talking about her.

CUOMO: Well, hold onto that.

HURST: Thank you, sir.

CUOMO: Because it's needed as much now as ever.

HURST: Thank you.

CUOMO: And we know that your station manager, Mr. Marks, is here, and he's been part of holding you guys together here through this. And we want to talk to him about what made her better than you in the first place. No, I'm kidding. I know that you want to hear that more than anybody else.

HURST: I will fully admit it.

CUOMO: Come in, Mr. Marks.

JEFF MARKS, WDBJ STATION MANAGER: Chris. HURST: So Jeff has been in my life before I even came to this

station. We know each other through a mutual friend, a mentor of mine at Emerson College where I went to school. And this is -- this has been an incredibly difficult ordeal that I think we have had to simultaneously keep our journalist hats on and also take them off to show our human side, too.

CUOMO: Well, it's off. It's OK to take them off when something hits this close to home and is this human. You said to me yesterday, something that I'll never forget what you said: the way you honor the legacy is by doing the news.

MARKS: Just do the news.

CUOMO: And you said yesterday was the worst day. And I'm sure last night was something that you're hopefully -- you were quick to want to get past.

MARKS: Well, we're not going to get past this, Chris. It was the worst day of the career for everybody here. We have people who started last week, you know.

HURST: Despondent, in despair.

MARKS: "What career have I gotten myself into?"

I want to say something and maybe Chris spoke to this. We're outraged that any of the comments of that manifesto are taken the least bit seriously. The idea that Alison noticed a street name and that that was sort of racial slur is just absurd to us as we investigate in this. She was just not the kind of person for whom that could have been possible.

And it's -- the man admitted in the manifesto that he was off his rocker. He used more graphic terms than that. And I think it just needs to be recognized that any threat or credence of credibility, given the claims in that manifesto or anything else the man said in the DOSI (ph) filing or what have you is utter nonsense.

CUOMO: You are in the unfortunate position of being able to examine why in a way that we usually don't as journalists, because it doesn't make as much sense. It doesn't have as much value to you because of what you've lost and what it means to you personally. But what do we do with a moment like this in terms of wanting to understand why it happened? Is there any value in that?

MARKS: Yes, of course, there is. Because maybe we can affect something or change something. One of the parents was talking about -- is talking about...

CUOMO: Wanting to deal with the access of weapons to people who have a disturbance, but it's very hard to decide when that is and who that is.

MARKS: Right. That's a -- that is a debate we should be having, always. One of the issues that some reporters have brought up is how do we protect journalists? Well, we can't send guards out with journalists on every story.

CUOMO: Well, and certainly, this was a completely unforeseeable event.

MARKS: Innocuous.

[06:20:05] CUOMO: This was, you know -- this was a feature piece about a 50th anniversary of a reservoir.

MARKS: How do we deal with mental-illness issues? I'm sure Chris has talked with you about that. We have proven ourselves as a society willing but ineffective in a lot of ways in dealing with mental illness.

CUOMO: Do you see these things differently now? You have been in the business a long time. You've dealt with these issues. The questions come up every time. But now...

MARKS: I see them more acutely now. We've covered these issues in our news. And I've covered them myself as a journalist over the years, so I see them more acutely.

CUOMO: I do think that one thing is happening here that is helpful. We often see in these situations that the reaction of the community and of the loved ones cancels out the feelings about the darkness that created the tragedy. When you see what happened here with your community, when you hear young people who have such a depth inside of them like Chris and the others who have come forward to talk about Alison and Adam, what hope does that give you?

MARKS: It gives me great hope for the role of the local broadcaster, serving the community, whether it's with tornado warnings or dire news such as we had yesterday. We definitely hope that there is a relationship here between those who provide the news, especially locally, and those who need to hear it and receive it. It gives me hope that our people, when they cover the news in the future, will have the support of the community as they have before. And maybe even greater. It gives me hope that journalists will work even harder to honor the memories of Alison and Adam.

CUOMO: Well, you should take a measure of solace in the fact that this is not one of those situations where those who were lost are overshadowed by the man who took them away. These two have been remembered strong and immediately, and that will hopefully help the families, including the news family. Mr. Marks, thank you.

MARKS: Chris, thank you for being here.

CUOMO: Thank you very much. You have been tireless in putting out the right word about what this means as journalists and as human beings. And I wish you the best for the whole family.

MARKS: Thank you.

CUOMO: Mr. Marks, thank you very much. I really do. Alisyn, this has been a very tough, tough 24 hours for these

people here. And remember, for those covering it, this story happens, and then time allows you to move on. For the families, for the news family, this is only just beginning.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Chris, I've never seen anything quite like that interview that you just did with Alison's fiance, Chris Hurst. He was so plainspoken yet profound. And he gave us such intimate insight into what Alison was like. And you know, he makes all of us wish that we'd known her and know him better.

I mean, those are special people there, including the general manager that you just -- that you just spoke to. We talk about this so often, Chris. There has to be an answer to this. And it seems as though those journalists down there are committed to figuring out how to change this for other people.

CUOMO: I don't know, Alisyn. I think that's -- I think that's hopeful. I think that's the way to be, that there's an optimism about change.

But when we're at so many of these in so many different communities and see so many different families affected; and the questions stay the same, and the debate seems stuck in some type of misplaced ideological cement on both sides, it makes you wonder where the solution lies.

But I will tell you this: getting to know Chris and understand his love for Alison, the expression it is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all is often trite but true, but here it's just true. And that young man had something in his life that very few people ever have. And he's aware of that, and he's going to cherish it. And it will help him and, I think, the families know what they had in these two young people. And they were special. And now they know the community felt it, as well.

And we just hope that that helps them. Because again, this is just day one of the rest of their lives dealing without the people who mattered most.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we felt it. I mean, we felt it in that interview. And he -- nobody could ever communicate it any better, I think, than Chris Hurst.

Chris, we will get back to you momentarily. We will have much more of our continuing coverage on the tragic shooting deaths of that young reporter and her cameraman. But first, we also have other news to tell you about.

There are other surprising results of a new national poll in the 2016 race. It talks about Joe Biden and the position that he's in and whether or not he it's an even better position than the perceived frontrunner, Hillary Clinton. We'll get into all of that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:28:01] CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. We will go back

to Roanoke for more on the murders of two journalists, but we do have other news to tell you about right now.

Donald Trump widening his lead in the latest Quinnipiac poll, while on the Democratic side, there are new concerns for frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

Let's talk about this with CNN political reporter M.J. Lee on the campaign trail. She joins us from Greenville, South Carolina, this morning.

Hi, M.J., give us the latest.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

That's right: Yet another poll showing that Trump is the clear frontrunner in the Republican field. A new Quinnipiac poll out this morning has Trump at 28 percent. That's up from 20 percent in a previous poll last month.

Falling behind him is Ben Carson at 12 percent, whose number has also seen a boost, from 6 percent last month. And then we have a couple of candidates who are in the 6 percent to 7 percent range, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Scott Walker.

On the Democratic side, not the best news for Hillary Clinton. She's still leading the Democratic pack, but her number has fallen from last month, from 55 percent to 45 percent. Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden, meanwhile, their numbers have picked up since last month.

And it's clear, Alisyn, from this poll that Hillary Clinton continues to struggle with a problem she's had for a while, which is that people perceive her to be not honest or trustworthy. Six in ten people say they do not believe she can be trusted or is honest.

Two things to point out about Donald Trump's numbers. First is that when people were asked whether they believed Trump is good on women's issues and cares about women's issues, six in ten people said no.

Meanwhile, asked if Trump would be able to handle -- adequately an international crisis as president, some 64 percent also answered no. So two potential problem areas for Donald Trump worth looking out for.

Alisyn, before I go, I will leave you with one final observation from this poll, and that is that Joe Biden in a general election would perform better than Hillary so two potential problem areas for Donald Trump we're looking out for. Before I go, I'll leave you with one final observation from the poll, and that is that Joe Biden in a general election would perform better than Hillary Clinton against some of the top Republican contenders including Trump, Bush and Rubio. So...